Spiral-toothed-gear turbine.



1. w. RENO. SPIRAL TOOTHED GEAR TURBINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. H.191].

1,234,213. I Patented July 24 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

ZY////,\ X\\ oKd/W J. W. RENO.

' sPum women GEAR TURBINE APPLICATION FILED MAR.|7.1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I L i L; /////7 UNITED STATES PATENT orFIoE.

SPIRAL-TOOTHED-GEAR TURBINE. v,

\ H, i i u l 1 234 213 Specification of'Letters Patent. Patented July 24, 191 Q I Application filed March 17, 1917. Serial No. 155,482.

To all whom it may concern: the power transmitted; through the gear Be it known that-I, Jnssn' V. RENO, a is large, it has been found expedient to make citizen of the United States, residing-[in the face of the gears very wide, for exam- New York, in the county of New York and ple, about four times the diameter of the 60 5 State of New York, have invented a new gear pinion; therefore, a six inch gear pinand useful Improvement in Spiral-Toothed-- ion, say, has afface approximately twenty Geared Turbines, of which the following is four inches wide. It is diflicult to maintain a. specification. the wide faces of'the gearsw'para'llel with My invention relatesto anew and usefuleach other, and to distribute the pressure 65 in'iprovement in reduction gears in spiral evenly along the entirefa-ce of the intertoothed geared turbines. meshing teeth oftliegears. To attain this The development, construction and operaend, a number of plaiis'have been proposed, tion of spiral toothed geared turbines to the several of which have been put into pracprescnt time have not been as satisfactory tice; for instance, in one well known con- 70 as might be wished for, in the respect of struction it is sought to maintain the p'aralpreserving and maintaining the intermeshlelism of the gear pinion and gear wheel by ing spiral toothed gears of theireduction the use of a floating pinion shaft, in which gear in alinement with each other, or, more the journal bearings are supported by indispecifically, in preserving the alinement be vidual oil dashpots. applicant also dis- 75 tween the spiral toothed driving gear pinion closes another plan in? patentgranted to and the driven spiral. toothed gear wheel of him, as patentee, Number 965,408, JulyQO, the reduction gear; the horse power trans- 1910, in which the pinion shaft is permitted mitted by the driving spiral toothed gear to move slightly about an aXisat right angles pinion to the driven spiral toothed gear to the gear pinion shaft. Those plans re- 80 2 wheel is comparatively large, say, for exquire'the whole pinion and shaft and bearample, inv passing, anywhere from one hunin to move, in order to accommodate itself dred-and fifty horse power to forty-five hunto any irregularities in alinement or unevendred horse power and five thousand horse ness in the surface of the teeth of the gears, power and even to a still larger number of and as the speed of rotation of the pinion 8 horse power. The effect of the transmission is usually very high, say 2000 per minute,- of such large horse powersbyahe drii 'ing there is a very high moment ofinertia to. spiral toothed gear pinion to drive the spiral resist the sudden changes in position and toothed gear wheel upon the alinenient o fc the action is not by any means ideal for the the gears, is frequently seriously to. change SINLII'KJSG intended For example, if it will 9 or destroy the a'linement, more or less, thcrebe'cmnsidered that there may be a high spot by causing a lack of uniforn'iity in the transin the face of the teeth of the large gear: mission of the power and its proper and in order to pass over this high spot it would equablc distributionamong the teeth of the be necessary for the entire pinion, shaft, gearing; and, even in those instances where and bearings of the same rapidly to adjust 95 40 in the perfection of the alinenient is prethemselves to the change in the positionreservedfduring the operation of the gear, quired. as it was originally upon the constriurtioir a Briefly spcakin z in my present plan, I- and installation of the gear, the wearing have made an improved.reduction gear for down of the teeth of the gears in the course a spiral toothed geared turbine in that, I 100 of time in the operation of the gear serves to ha vc substituted for the usual, conventional allow the teeth'of the respective gears to begear pinion, a number of rings or tubular come too far apart from each other, then,and circular sections or laminations,with teeth as a consequence, the proficient and efiicient in their outeuperiphery, spirally set, and

intefrmeshing of the teeth, which originally mounted on-\\'hat wasthe pinion gear 195 obtained when the gears werefirst set and drive shaft, side by sidenvith each other, so alined relatively "to each other and their that their teeth relatively considered as corrteeth intermeshed, falls off with the amount stitutin g a unit, form a spiral toothed gear; of the wear of the teeth and the efliciencylikeand I have connected the toothed sections wise of the gear is reduced, as is well known to the shaft, to be driven thereby, by means In) in the art. of resilient, yielding elements, in the form,

Insteam turbine engines, especiallywhe're generally speaking, of a hollow cylinder preferably comprised of helices. The trans-- mitting elements have to be strong enough to transmit the full power of the drive shaft to the toothed sections, and yet allow of their compression, and therefore, I have designed a transmitting element suitable to perform both of those functions, whereby the intermeshed teeth will be allowed automatically to accommodate themselves to any irregularities in their working faces and their alinement be restored and preserved.

It will be perceived that the improved spiral toothed geared turbine corresponds broadly to the usual well-known spiral toothed geared turbine in which the reduction gear comprises a gear pinion; but diffe'rs therefrom in the particulars and functions heretofore generally pointed out, and which I will now proceed to describe more specifically.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a view, partly in section, of a part of the reduction gear of my improved turbine.

Fig. 2 is a side or end view, in outline, of a toothed ring on the drive shaft and connecting elements between the ring and shaft.

Fig: 3 is a view in cross section of the connecting element.

Fig. -t is a view in cross section of a connccting element in place between the shaft and toothed ring, the shaft and rlng being shown only in part and SBCtIOII Fig.1) is a view of a connectmgelement, in place between the shaft and toothed ring, but deformed by the pressure of the shaft upon the ring.

Fig. 0 is a view of the shaft and rings assembled.

Fig. 7 is an end view of a part of the connecting element.

Fig. 8 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line (I -(L of Fig. 7.

Fig. 0 is a view of my improved turbme, comprised of improved reduction gear.

Similar letters of reference designate the corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

,In the drawing, Fig. 9, I have indicated the usual turbine proper, T, and shown the usual bed plate, 1, therefor, in which are ,the usual rigid journal bearings, 2, for the journals, 3, of the drive shaft,4, of the usual gear pinion; there being the conventional coupling, C. between the drive shaft, 4, and the turbine shaft, t, but, instead of employing the usual form of pinion drive shaft. with the gear pinion secured rigidly thereto or formed integrally therewith, I form seats, ways or recesses, 5, in the. surface of the drive shaft, 4; the seats may be spaced apart, around the surface of the shaft, as many as may be considered desirable; in Fig. 2, I have indicated two seats around the surface of the shaft. Instead of using the usual gear pinion, formed integrally with the drive shaft or rigidly secured thereto, to be driven thereby without turning thereon, I use a series of annular ring sections or rings, 0, having grooves or seats, 7, in the inner or annular surface; the grooves, 7, are spaced apart from each other, around the inner surface of the rings, 6, as many as may be. necessary, to correspond to the number of ways or seats, 5, in the drive shaft, t; the ways, 5, and grooves, 7, register with each other, and when together, constitute a recess, and, preferably circular in cross section; the grooves, 7, extend the whole length of the ring, and, when the rings are placed side by side, form a continuous recess extending the entire length of the faces of the adjacent oradjoinuig rings. In the recesses, I place a resilient, yielding element, comprised of a circular tube or circular hollow cylinder, 8, preferably, constituted of a strip of steel, wound in the shape of a helix, with the helices slightly separated from each other, by 'an air gap, as shown in the drawing; one suggestion, or reason, for adopting this form of resilient element, between the drive shaft, 4, and rings, (3, is that the grain of the metal shall follow the spiral or helical turns of the coils or convolutions of the strip, and therefore, the element be more resilient than a plain tube or hollow cylinder or even of a series of rings, independent of each other, made of drawn steel, where the grain of the metal would be parallel with the longitudinal axis of the cylinder. The purpose of the octagon shape, of the recess, Figs. & and

5, is to reduce the friction of the resilient clement against the side of the recess. The octagon form of recess also allows the resilient ircular tube, to change its shape readily, under pressure, conforming more or less to the sides of the recess, which shape further serves to hold the circular tube in its preferable proper relative position to the drive shaft and ring, that is to say, with the diam eter of the tube coinciding with the line between the meeting surfaces of the shaft and ring.

I have made a calculation as to the pressure coming upon each spring, and I find that in transmitting 2500 I'll through a pinion approximately six inches in pitch diameter and a shaft four inches in diameter, at 2000 RPM and assuming that each lamination of the pinion is two inches wide, there being as is usual, two pinions with an aggregate length of face of twenty-four inches, the pressure on each spring (assuming that there are two as shown in the drawing) would be two thousand pounds. I have made some experiments with a resilient element comprised of a coil spring of this character. and I find that this pressure is not excessive and the deformatimi of the'clcmcnt would not exceed the elastic limit of the high -posedi' w shaft, and its, shortest:

On. the-bar, 12,

the rings 1 inner surface of -rings from lar shape of tooth;

\r. grade steel of Which'the element is comr i 7 I In'Figsi'l, 2 anti 3, I have shown a circular shape of recess, in cross section, which 5 shape is well adapted to the purpose of the recess.

plates, 9, with holes, 10,

In the I place two end in them, in which 12, to suprecess,

areplaced'the ends, 11,:of a bar,

port the bar'with its longitudinal axis in m the same plane as the meeting surfaces of thedrive shaft and rings. The bar, 12,

preferably elliptical oi; ellipsoidal in cross' section, as shown in the drawing, and is set withits longest diameter radially of the diameter substantially-in the same plane with the meeting 4 surfaces of the driven shaft and rings. The longest diameter of,- the bar is the same length as the inner diameterofthe'rings.

, to retain the rings centrally of the recess, so that the pressure upon the rings may pass substantially through their diameter. The diameter of bar serves the recess is that much larger than the external diameter of to leave a space between the 'walls of the recess and rings; and the shortest diameter of the bar, 12, is ,shorter than the internal diameter effect, leaves a space between the larger portion of thesurface of'the bar and the rings to be deformed, under pressure, until the surface of the rings is pressed against the surface of the bar, 12, whicharrangement also serves the valuable purpose of resisting and preventing the collapse of the rings, to such a degree as to impair their resiliency, or in other words, prevent the elastic limit. In the meeting faces of the 'ringst, and drive shaft, 4-, adjacentlto the recesses, I provideseats onways, 13,- in which I place bars, 14, their opposed or free sides. 15, hearing against the rings,'8, ex,

ternally, at the. line o posite'the diameter of the circular tube, 8, at tlien'ieeting s'urfaces of the drive shaft, 4, andthe rings, 6. The object of the bars, 14, is to distribute the pressure evenly through the 'axis of the hollow cylinder or circular tube, 8. It is plain that I might-have the recess elliptical vin crossseclion, as indicated octagon shape, Fig.

instead of circular, and-thereupon have the bar, 12, circular in cross sectrpn, instead of elliptical or ellipsoidal. Those features are more inatters of design than a departure from my invention. I

In the outer periphery of the rings,"6, I have formed teeth, 16, spirallyarranged; I have indicated a tooth, 16, in outline, in Fig. 2, but I do not limit myself to any particu- I have not shown the sembled, side more or less, or say,

the rings, and allows the being compressed beyond their-- have shown thetube under generally in the 0rd might have the internal cross section of the tube, elliptical,-

teeth, 16, entirely around the periphery of the rings, but have described in the-description and indicated in the drawing that such is the case.

by side, on the drive shaft 4, and properly arranged, their teeth taken together, as a unit, constitute, in effect, a spiral toothed gear pinion, similar in some respects tothat of the usual rigid faced gear pinion. I may useas many rings as I- please,

but I suggest that, ordinarily, the width of the face of a ring'may be about two inches, twelve rings or sections When the rings, 6, are as.

may be 'used instead of theusual twentyfour inch long gear pinion; of course, the matter ofthe mere number of sections best to be used in a given casefwlll be ascertalned by calculation or observation in practice.

When my improved turbine isconstructed the teeth, 16, of the rings or sections, 6, will be intermeshed with the teeth of the driven wheel, 17, of the reduction gear, similar to that of the usual Itwill be understood that in, the operation gear pinion and driven element is always under severe compression in transmitting the power. If for any reason the drive shaft, and shaft the gear wheel are out of line, .it merely means that one elements would be under more pressure than anothergroup. In other words, the whole face of thegear group of resilient pinion will he at all times free to adjust and. accommodate itself auto inatically to the irregularities of the teethor the non-alinement of the shafts. 'lhisJ-quality will undoubtedly add to the ordinary life of the gear as compared with the rigid constructitm of the 'pinion gear now in use, and tlie rigid alinement of "it with the driven gear wheel.

-"A further advantagoin my form of construction i sthe possibility after one side of the teeth has been ;worndown or irregular, of taking the pinion sections oil from the shaft and turning them' end for end. thus presenting a new and unworn tooth face.

In Fig. -l, I have shown the'resilient tube, 8, in cross scctioi'i, in the recess, in whichthe tube is not under compressioi-l; in Fig. 5, I

pressure, dc-

fornted thereby; of course, the showing of (lGIl'IHZYlURtlOn is exaggerated and-the exact lines outline of defornnltion, more or less, assumed. r

In ig. (3. I have shown-the rings, asscnibleid (in the drive shaft, the ringsbeing in two ro'u'p's, of four rings each, to cor-re:

of the faces spond 'in place to the usualvtwo gear pinions,

. the groups being' held. spaced apart-fromeach other by a sleeve, 18; and kept from displacement on the shaft by a collar, 19.

It is my desire not to limit my invention by my description of it, but on the contrary, it is my wish and intention to include as being within the scope of my invention, any spiral toothed gear turbine in which is comprised the idea and practice of providing for the alinement of the faces of the pinion and driven wheel gears and the adjustment or accommodation of the intermeshing teeth of the two gears, because of their de-alined irregular or worm teeth.

What I elaim,and desire to secure is 1. As an improved spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a turbine, a shaft driven thereby, having seats therein, rings, having teeth in their periphery and mounted on the shaft, having seats in their inner surface, the seats on the shaft and rings registered together forming recesses, end pieces and a bar supported in the end pieces, the bar being substantially elliptical in cross section, and resilient tubes, constructed of spiral coils, slightly spaced apart from each other in the recesses, and sleeved on the bar, and distribnter bars, seated in the recesses, and bearing against the tubes, and a toothed driven wheel, the teeth in the rings and the wheel, being formed spirally, and inter-meshing with each other.

2. A spiral toothed geared turbine, com-- prising, in combination, a turbine, a drive shaft, having seats in its surface, two or more rings mounted on the shaft, having seats in their internal surface, the seats in the shaft and rings together constituting a recess; two or more circular resilient tubes formed of spiral turns, slightly apart from each other, in the recesses, to allow angular movement or turning movement between the shaft and rings, 'for the purposes substantially described, and teeth spirally arranged in the periphery of the rings, and a driven toothed gear wheel, the teeth of the rings and gear wheel being intermcshed with each other.

3. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the

combination of a shaft, to be driven thereby, a series of toothed rings, mounted on the shaft, resilient spiral tubing, between the shaft and rings, connecting the rings to the shaft, to be turned thereby. but, by compression, to allow a slight anghlar movement to take place between the shaft and rings, and bars bearing against the tubing, and engaged by the shaft, to distribute upon the tubing the pressure transmitted thereto by the turning of the shaft.

4. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a shaft, to be driven by the turbine, at toothed gear mounted thereon, to be turned thereby, and in ans connecting the shaft and gear together, comprised of a resilient tubing, constituted of a strip of hardened steel, wound spirally, to form helices, the latter being slightly spaced apart from each other, the tubing being seated longitudinally of the shaft and gear.

5. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a shaft, to be driven by the turbine, a toothed gear, to be driven by the shaft, the shaft and gear being provided with a recess between them, a resilient element, in the recess, connectin the shaft and gear together, seated longitudinally of the shaft and gear and means to center the element in the recess.

(3. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a' shaft, to be driven by the turbine, at toothed gear to be driven by the shaft, the shaft and gear being provided with a recess between them, a spirally wound resilient. tubing, in the recess, elastically connecting the shaft and gear together, seated longitudinally of the shaft and gear and a member, in the tubing, to center the same in the recess.

7. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a shaft, to be driven by the turbine, a toothed gear to be driven by the shaft, the shaft and gear being provided with a recess between them, a resilient tubing in the recess, elastically connecting the shaft and gear together, seated longitudinally of the shaft and gear and a member, in the tubing, to center the same in the recess.

8. In a spiral toothed geared turbine, the combination of a shaft, to be driven by the turbine, a toothed gear to be driven by the shaft. the shaft and gear being provided with a recess between them, a wound resilient tubing, in the recess, elastically connecting the shaft and gear together, seated longitudinally of the shaft and gear and a member, in the tubing, to center the same in the recess.

S). In a toothed geared turbine, comprising the drive shaft, and the pinion to be driven thereby, the shaft and gear being provided with a recess between them, a resilient tubing in the recess, connecting the shaft and pinion together, the tubing being seated longitiulinally of the shaft and gear.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JESSE \V. RENO.

\V itnesses:

lhmns'r I. GALE, J12,

James (1. BETIIELL. 

